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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Educational Insights Alphabet & Phonics Bean Bags Review & Giveaway

I am SUPER excited about this week's review and giveaway! I was sent the Phonics and Alphabet bean bags fromEducational Insight's. I have been wanting to get my hands on these for some time - there is just so much fun to be had with bean bags.

What's in the Box?

The Alphabet Bean Bags set comes with 26 double sided soft bean bags that depict the lower case letters of the alphabet on one side and upper case letters on the other. Vowels are stitched in red and consonants are stitched in blue. The set also includes an activity guide for further play ideas.

The Phonics Bean Bags set includes 26 soft bean bags with embroidered pictures that represent each letter of the alphabet. Vowel bags depict both long and short vowel sounds and c and g have pictures to depict both their hard & soft sounds. The set also includes an activity guide for further play ideas.

All the bean bags are washable and come in a drawstring storage bag. The bags are easy to handle

How to Play:

To work on beginning letter sounds we played a fun game with both bean bag sets. I had the girls put the alphabet bean bags in ABC order on our large play mat. They had fun with that and once they were done - I told them we were going it as our game board!

Next, I let them take turns pulling phonics bean bags out of the carrier. They had to identify the picture by saying the word and then tell me the letter that corresponded to the initial sound in the word.

They loved moving around to place the bean bags on the correct letters. We made a game out of that too by trying to come up with some action that corresponded to the picture. Like barking for the D-dog, walking lowly for the t-turtle, pretending to write for the p-pencil, etc. It was fun to see what they came up with!

* We also played by putting down the phonics bags first & picking letters and matching them up that way. It was slightly more challenging since they had to look all through the pictures to match the sound versus just identifying the letter sound and then scanning for the letter.*

Even More Ways to Play:
I am seriously loving the bean bag sets! There are so many ways to play and incorporate learning into our day using them.

Here are a few more ways I've used them so far with the Lil Divas:

1. To make simple CVC words - the alphabet bean bags can be used with picture cards or alone. We had fun trying to spell some of the pictures from the phonics bean bags too.

2. Word Family Practice - we have been using our alphabet bean bags to practice various word families. This is something I am really focusing on with my kindergartener and she enjoys using the bean bags to make words.

3. Sight Word Spelling - It was a fun change of pace to use the alphabet bean bags to spell out the sight words we have been working on.

4. Letter Relay - this is a fun game that the Lil Divas really love playing! I wish I had pictures but it goes so fast - they kept coming out blurry! to play, I set up either the alphabet or phonics bean bags on the floor (not in ABC order) and then I call out a letter sound. The 1st Lil Diva has to run to the correct letter or picture bag and hand it to her sister, who then has to come up with a word that starts or ends with that sound (whatever I choose). Then we do it again, starting w/the child who gave me the word so that they are changing their role in the game. I can not tell you how much fun we have had playing this game!

5. How Many Syllables? - we play this game with the phonics bags. The Lil divas identify the pictures and clap out the syllables for each word.

Now that you've seen a few ways you can use these bean bags - don't you want them? I know you do! I am super excited to be able to give away one of each bean bag set thanks to the generous people at Educational Insights.

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Disclaimer: I received the Alphabet & Phonics Bean Bag Sets for free from Educational Insights for the purposes of trying it out for this review. That being said, this review is my 100% honest opinion of this product - I am not paid for my reviews or optinions! They are 100% mine! Please remember that your opinions and tastes might differ from mine.

I began following you with Google Reader a little while ago. I've tagged a lot of your ideas to use with my granddaughters. Thanks for all the effort you put in sharing what works with your little ones. ~~Rhondareacoulter at gmail dot com

I would love to either one of them because having four children (ages 6, 4, 2, and a 11 day old baby) I could foresee using these with my oldest with spelling yet also using them with my 4 and 2 year old as well. Thanks for the chance :)

Great prize - I've never seen these. My daughter has just started Reception so would be great for word building practice and for the twins to learn their letters when they're a bit older.rebecca.english@hotmail.co.uk

I would like to win the alphabet bean bag set to work with my 4 yr. old Granddaughter. These all look so well made that my soon to be 2 yr. old granddaughter could get use out of them as well. Good educational toy that will last through several little hands and minds!

While cruzing your site I found some GREAT ideas (I commented) #1http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/2011/09/big-red-barn-handprint-farm-animals.html?showComment=1317560405400#c4980299118337008199havenera at gmail dot com

While cruzing your site I found some GREAT ideas (I commented) #2http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com/2011/09/big-red-barn-handprint-farm-animals.html?showComment=1317560405400#c4980299118337008199havenera at gmail dot com

I really can't decide which set I would like better. I'm thinking I would prefer the phonics bean bags because we can use the other letters we already have (magnetic, blocks) with the phonics bean bags.